BackThe Protector of Citizens (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Serbia, Saša Janković, published the office’s Annual Report for 2013 in English. In the reporting period, the Protector of Citizens acted upon 5,042 complaints, and he established almost 18,000 contacts with citizens in addition to the rapidly growing number of complaints.
The Protector of Citizens concluded that the prevalence of the political will to implement (or not to implement) a law over the certainty of the rule of law, populism, weak institutions versus strong centres of political power and powerful personalities of office-holders, the weak and inefficient judiciary, manipulations of the media and by the media, the atrophied economy and the weak and unreformed administration are the major barriers to the implementation of the citizens’ rights and liberties in the Republic of Serbia.
In 2013, the institutions of the Republic of Serbia voiced more firmly their resolve to uphold and reaffirm the European values, of which an unconditional respect for the guaranteed human rights is a tenet. Declaratory commitment to further strengthening the institutions has so far failed to produce visible results in practice.
Particularly worrying are two interrelated phenomena: the pressure exerted on the media (media control) and the leaking of confidential information and virtual transfer of institutional processes to privileged tabloid media. “Tabloidisation” of the media – against which the Protector of Citizens warned in the strongest possible terms in last year’s Annual Report – has meanwhile gathered momentum and developed into “tabloidisation of the state”.
The widely trumpeted stepped-up fight against corruption has so far failed to yield results in the shape of final and enforceable court judgments.
The Annual Report is available in Serbian and English.
Source: Protector of Citizens, Serbia
